Men, Too, Are Victims of Domestic Violence; Mrs. Bobbitt's Brutality

Published: February 4, 1994

To the Editor:

"Violence and the Bobbitts" (editorial, Jan. 22) suggests the Lorena Bobbitt jury "be forgiven for finding a reason to excuse Mrs. Bobbitt's brutality: brutality she herself endured for too long." But brutality, no matter how long endured, cannot excuse a retaliatory assault, and a jury that reaches a verdict on that basis is guilty of miscarriage of justice.

Under such a warped standard, any mistreated person would be free to exact revenge in whatever measure he or she thought appropriate, usurping the rule of law.

The only legal excuses for Lorena Bobbitt's act are self-defense and insanity. The only evidence relevant to the jury's finding of temporary insanity was testimony about the defendant's state of mind at the time of the assault. But Lorena Bobbitt's claim of temporary psychosis was contradicted by her purposeful behavior and her lucid statements immediately following the attack.

The temptation and pitfall of the battered-woman defense is to relax the legal requirements for acquittal by making a counterattack seem excusable when evidence for self-defense or insanity is slim. We can easily identify with a woman's rage, and easily see how rage can lead to an act we might endorse, were there not due process of law.

But there is due process, and we may not excuse such acts out of empathy alone, lest a battered woman becomes a law unto herself, and unpunished retaliation becomes the norm. THOMAS W. CLARK Somerville, Mass., Jan. 23, 1994